Turn 4.1 - 4.3 "So This Is What Gravity Feels Like?"
"Akers...Akers...," Alex moaned for a second in his trance, before snapping
back to attention. "Akers," he said again, for the benefit of the other two.
"Does that name ring a bell? He was here, I don't know how long ago, killing
the power and gravity."
Alex quickly outlined his mental image of the man to Dimitrio and Zach.
"I'm not even sure if it was a man...it could have been a woman, for all I know.
But the name was definitely 'Akers'."
Dimitrio's breaths went in audibly as he gasped for air. "Damn, I know him,
and it IS a him. He's in charge of the 3rd shift of engineering and he's the
one responsible for any 'knocks' on your head. I just didn't know how
responsible he was for it."
Hearing the name 'Akers', Zach had his shadow do a search on the name in the
personnel files. First, last, middle, and the character sequence in a name. He
opened his eyes and looked up at Alex and Dimitrio. "Jonah Akers, Supervisor of
Third Shift Engineering Team. He's on loan to the Concord Space Authority from
the Inseers."
Everyone knew that Insight was the newest stellar nation that had broken away
during the Second Galactic War from Voidcorp. Evidently, they had a falling out
with their parent government's view on life...and during a crucial moment secretly
sabotaged the Grid and interstellar communications in order to allow Voidcorp to
suffer a major defeat. That single event had been one of the major reasons for
the war settling down into a stalemate, which precipitated the Treaty of Concord,
and brought peace to the stars. Since that time, Insight had maintained very good
relations with the Galactic Concord, part of the reason why the ComTech team
working on the drivespace relay satellites had been chosen for the Kendai project.
After all, they were Inseers as well.
"I never knew we had any Inseers on-board besides the ComTech Team," Zach
mentioned, "But evidently this Akers fella was hired through the Concord Space
Authority. His background should have been checked out pretty thoroughly. If he
was dirty, surely the Galactic Concord would have known?"
Alex shook his head, knowling full well that bureacracies could overlook a lot
of things when scrambling to procure resources for a major project like the
rebuilding of Kendai. He turned his full attention back to Zach, "Any luck on
your side?"
Zach said, "It looks like we have some sort of takeover in progress. I think
we have a shuttle leaving. Don't enter the shuttle bay without checking its
status first. You'll wind up in space."
"A shuttle? Leaving now?" Alex cried out, "Which one is it?" Oh, no! Not
my baby!" If there was anything that Alex couldn't stand, it was unauthorized
people at his helm. He'd spent *days* getting his ship, even if it was a
glorified postal carrier, the way he liked it. He didn't need some two-bit
half-assed pilot at her controls. "What other pilots are on this station?" he
asked, trying to recall if he had met any.
Zach took another moment to check the personnel files, closing his eyes as
the information filtered through his gridcaster and into his nanocomputer. "The
Station Commander has documented flight experience. Maybe three others, but none
of them are tagged for any sort of duty related to the hangar bay shuttle. Wait!
Here's one... Milo Argentine... he's a service technician. In charge of running
routine maintenance on all vehicles and space-propulsion units."
He continued with the rest of his update, saying, "Auxiliary systems are down.
Gravity is out Levels 1 - 6, Power is out on levels 3 and 6. Levels 2, 4, and 5
have partial power. We have a Code-3 security breach." He looked up at the
confused look on Alex and Dimitrio's faces. "That means someone tried to hack
their way into the secure systems. I set up the computer to lockdown after three
unsuccessful login attempts or violations were detected."
Dimitrio thought hard while he floated over to Alex, "Well if he can kill the
power and gravity from here, I'll be damned if I can't get it back on. Move over
there, guy." Dimitrio softly pushed Alex out of the way and grabbed onto the
console twisting his body into position. His thoughts turned inward to his
nanocomp while his left eye opened and closed at an amazing speed, 'Julia: How
the heck do I turn the power on from here?' After a few moments, his hands began
moving over the console, pressing buttons, and pulling on levers.
Zach engaged his nanocomputer as well, letting his shadow do some more work.
He knew he wasn't going to be of much help anywhere but at a console. He
defintely wasn't an ace with the pistol. Someone would get hit. And, he
couldn't guarantee it would be the enemy. So Zach kept one ear open and hooked
his leg around a pipe to hold himself steady in case Dimitrio was successful at
getting gravity restored.
Zach sent his shadow off to try to establish a comm-protocol with the
command center and the communications section. He knew it would take time, but
he had that. Even so, he understood that there was only so much that the shadow
could do. He would have to run some hardware between the two stations before he
could get control of anything. And, if that were the case, he might as well
jack-in upstairs anyway. Still, they might need another station capable of
handling the command center's controls. He might as well do what he could now.
Maybe he would have time later to run the secure-link cables through the
station's infrastructure and plug them into the machines. As for the
communications computer, he shook his head, realizing that he had no clue what
the ComTech Team might have set up on that machine. He'd have to investigate
that one, in person.
'For now, let the marine's do their job and I'll do mine,' he thought to
himself. He set up one more command for his shadow and gave it instructions to
monitor all access to the current systems and their locations. The dark figure
nodded in acceptance and dashed away down the bridge of light, disappearing from
view.
------------------
Meanwhile...
Jake had watched Nola's back as she had entered the main engineering chamber,
and had followed along as best he could. She seemed to have done a far better
job of navigating the zero-G than he had. When he had heard the distinctive clunk
of magnetic boots, Jake had gone one way, while Nola went the other, so they could
have whomever or whatever it was in a squeeze. All the while, he had cursed (not
for the last time) the Concord Marines for not putting him through zero-G as part
of basic training. And for good measure, he had cursed whoever had had the bright
idea of not getting the null-g weapons first.
As he rounded the corner, Jake managed to spot Nola confronting... Akers.
'Wasn't he a fellow on the engineering shift?' he thought. He wasn't sure. But
what was certain was that he was the dude in the clunk-clunk boots and his hand
rested on a pistol, although he wasn't pointing it at Nola...yet. And he wore
some strange looking shades.
Nola took a quick look at the man's ID-tag standing before her, and then spoke
in a loudish voice to make sure she was heard and was the focal point of his
attention, "Akers is it." She posed the words as a statement, not a question.
Without moving the gun from him as a target, she continued, "Now don't do
anything rash with that gun. You can go back to your work around here and do
your engineering stuff as long as you let go and give me your gun. I'm just here
to make sure nobody gets hurt. I'm Nola T'Sharn, security for third shift. As
you're so nice about it I won't need to report you in. Okay?"
Jake knew that firing even at a close distance would be dicey, and while Nola
kept his attention, Jake tried to get down close to the floor, intending to crawl
quietly along it, snaking his way toward Akers and keeping his rifle pointed in
his general vicinity. He wanted to approach at an angle so that if Nola had to
take a shot, he wouldn't be on the receiving end if she missed (or if he had to
take a shot and he missed).
As he began to bend lower toward the floor, he lost contact with his feet upon
the floor and began to spin slowly within the zero-G environment. Instead of
placing himself parallel to the deck-plates as Dimitrio had demonstrated so easily
in the other room, Jake wound up with his head pointed down at the floor, legs and
arms waving ineffectively in the weightlessness. To make matters worse, he found
himself facing away from Akers, and he couldn't reach the floor or the ceiling with
his hands or feet in order to push off and correct his orientation. "Damn...
damn...," he inwardly cursed himself, and the Concord Marines one more time.
Across the room, Nola watched her backup man foul up in the zero-gravity and
had to concentrate hard not to look directly at him and cue Akers to the danger
behind him. 'C'mon, 'Dig'...get killed on your own time, will ya?' she thought to
herself.
"I... I... I d-don't underst--understtt---understand!" Akers voice rang out in
the engineering chamber, competing with the hum of the equipment all around the
room. Even so, he spoke loudly enough for both Nola and Jake to hear him, and for
them to notice his pronounced stutter... perhaps a sign of his nervousness, or
perhaps a sign of a psycho-physiological problem.
"Th-th-they s-said... they s-s-said that no... n-no one... w-w-w-would get...
g-get...out," Akers finished. His hand tightened upon the grip of his pistol, but
Nola was unable to read his eyes behind the mirrored sunglasses. As he began to
raise his hand, bringing the gun into line with Nola, standing before him, her
eyes widened with surprise. He couldn't expect to shoot her! She had the drop on
him! He was committing suicide! Was he really that dumb?!?
Nola shouted, "Drop it!" even as she pulled the trigger on her own weapon, and
even though she knew that the recoil would do something to her in the stupid world
of zero-g. The pistol bucked hard in her hand, immediately throwing her arm up
and back and causing her to spin in place like a top as she drifted away toward
the wall of the mass reactor cylinder. The bullet from her charge pistol found
its target, though, striking Akers in the left shoulder and penetrating his e-suit.
He grunted softly and fired as well, his own weapon emitting a beam of light.
The laser burned across Nola's thigh, just above the knee. She hissed in pain and
gritted her teeth as she continued to spin across the room, unable to slow herself
down until she crashed against the mass reactor.
Behind them, Jake still hung suspended in the air, safe only as long as Akers
remained oblivious to his presence. But he couldn't let Nola down. He had to do
something! He used the barrel of his charge-rifle to push down against the floor
and guide himself up to the ceiling, hoping to brace himself there, and get
righted once again. Tucking his knees up and into a ball, he tried to twist about
so he could catch himself with his hands, but couldn't quite get all the way
around, bumping his shoulder into the ceiling and making an audible 'thump'.
Akers spun around and fired his laser blindly. With Jake safely at ceiling
level, the shot missed completely. But he still couldn't get himself turned
around correctly to bring his rifle to bear. The engineer grinned below him and
raised his pistol once more, taking careful aim this time...
------------
Meanwhile...
Inside the engineering control room, Dimitrio looked back to Zach and Alex,
giving them both an expression that urged them to prepare themselves. The wiry
man smiled and exclaimed, "Watch out everyone, the fall may hurt you!" As if by
magic, the normal lighting flooded the place and gravity was restored. At the
same time, another shot rang out inside the main engineering chamber.
All ready for the gravity-change, Dimitrio had prepared to deftly step onto
the floor, reminding himself to bend slightly at the knees. But, even so, the
second pistol-shot broke his concentration, and he stumbled a bit, not quite
getting the knee-dip executed correctly. He caught himself on the console and
then got his feet back under him. Lugwig, Alex, and Zach also gathered themselves
back together.
"Now let's see where Akers is, and what reasons he's got for pulling this
stunt," Dimitrio told them. He looked out into the other room before going over
and loudly calling out for Nola and Dig...
------------
Inside the engineering chamber, the sudden gravity had disastrous effects
upon the two security officers. Nola, had just managed to stop her spinning.
She still felt dizzy, but across the room, she could see Akers taking aim on Jake.
And then suddenly, Jake was falling...and so was she.
They both collapsed into a heap upon the floor. Jake took the worst of it,
banging his head very hard onto the deck plates, and losing his grip on the
rifle. Akers second shot once again missed its target as he wasn't prepared for
Jake to drop like a stone to the floor. His laser stitched across the ceiling,
leaving a black smoky trail. Unlike everyone] else, the engineer kept his
footing, although he did lose his balance for a split-second. His magnetic
boots anchored him firmly to the floor whether in low- or high-gravity, and that
alone allowed him to catch himself before collapsing to his knees.
Realizing that he'd lost his tactical advantage when the gravity was restored,
Akers shut off his magnetic boots and wheeled around, running quickly to the door
across the room in the northern-most corner. As Nola and Jake began to gather
themselves back together, they barely managed to roll out of the way of two more
laser shots, carelessly fired over his shoulder in the hopes of discouraging
pursuit.
Nola was the first to regain her senses and fired her pistol in defense, the
shot cracking into the door just as it closed behind him. Jake, on the other
hand, scrambled to reclaim his rifle from where it had fallen to the floor. As
he reached down for it, a drop of blood landed on his hand. He must have been
gashed somewhere on his head during the fall. By the time he brought his weapon
to bear, however, Akers was long gone. Just around the mass reactor cylinder a
familiar voice called out...
"Hey! You alright in there? I hope you didn't fall too hard!"
It was Dimitrio...
---------------------------------------------
---------- Turn 4.1 - 4.3 Comments ----------
---------------------------------------------
1. Okay, current health status: Nola (down to 6 stun, and 5 wounds)...
Jake (down to 8 stun).
2. Ammo status: Nola (fired 2 shots, down to 13).
3. A little explanation on how things transpired might be necessary...Jake
experienced a Critical Failure skill check result while trying to maneuver in the
zero-g, resulting in his really awkward orientation, and effectively removing him
from participating in the last round. Dimitrio cut on the gravity and caught
almost everyone by surprise, making things go from bad to worse. Basically,
Akers had ample opportunity to take a couple of shots, decide to flee, and reach
the door. Nola's last shot was a normal Failure result, and Akers had the benefit
of partial cover from the door.
4. Zach, I'm at fault for not letting you know the specifics of the programs
that you have available. You only have one "shadow" program. They take up a lot
of space and really serve as just an extra pair of hands while in the Grid. You
can also send a "shadow" on a mission, log out of the Grid, then log back in later
and check his results. That sort of thing can even be done across the interstellar
Grid...i.e., into other star-systems...though there's a significant time-delay
(at least 22 hours, 11 going out and 11 coming back across a single drivespace
relay). It's important to note that the Kendai station computer that controls all
the general systems on board is on a closed-circuit. The only way to send your
"shadow" on an interstellar mission would require you to log onto the communications
computer on Level 2, and then fire him out to a drivespace relay for transmission
to another system. Just letting you guys know how the technology works in the
Alternity universe. Don't worry about not knowing all of this stuff yet. There's a
lot of material, and I couldn't really tell all of it to you guys ahead of time. As
we go through the campaign, you'll learn more and more about the technology,
politics, etc. Before long, you'll be experts on the Star*Drive Campaign Setting.
:)
5. What will everyone do now? Give chase? Tend to your fallen comrades?
Explain the current situation to each other? Actions, anyone...?
-- Neil
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